POLICY on TRANS COMPETITORS British Swimming Is Responsible For

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

POLICY on TRANS COMPETITORS British Swimming Is Responsible For POLICY ON TRANS COMPETITORS British Swimming is responsible for regulating within its jurisdiction the participation of persons as competitors in an event or events of the following sports: swimming (all disciplines), synchronised swimming, water polo and diving. These are gender-affected sports as defined by legislation, in that the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one sex would put them at a disadvantage to average persons of the other sex as competitors in an event of one of the above-mentioned sports. Accordingly, British Swimming adopted a policy on transsexual competitors in November 2011 for two reasons: firstly, in order to ensure equal and fair competition in the above- mentioned sports; and secondly, to ensure the safety at all times of all competitors. This policy has now been updated based on the helpful guidance from the Sports Council Equality Group. DEFINITIONS For the purposes of this Policy: Trans (or transgender) is an umbrella term used by individuals whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from their birth sex. The term includes, but is not limited to transsexual persons and others who define as gender variant. Trans persons may or may not choose to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically and in such cases the Panel shall have regard to fair competition and safety. Transsexual persons have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex Competitor denotes an entrant to competitions promoted by or on behalf of British Swimming (i.e. British Championships) in England, Scotland or Wales. A competitor who wishes to represent their country at an international level will need to meet the requirements of the relevant international federation or the International Olympic Committee to compete at the Olympic Games. POLICY 1. All enquiries regarding participation by a trans person as a competitor shall be passed for determination to British Swimming’s Equality and Participation Panel (“the Panel”). 2. The Panel shall comprise of three representatives appointed by the British Swimming Board. The Panel’s appointees shall not necessarily be members of the aforementioned Board but shall always include amongst its numbers one medical and one legal representative, both of whom shall possess appropriate expertise. 3. The trans person (and their legal guardian if under 18) shall be asked to permit his or her GP and/or medical consultant and the Gender Recognition Panel1 to disclose sufficient information to the Panel (including such other information, records or other material as British Swimming may require from time to time). The Panel should also be permitted to go back to the GP and/or medical consultant to clarify or verify any details. This will ensure that the Trans person is managing the information that is shared with the Panel and will assist in ensuring the individual’s right to privacy. 4. All reasonable steps shall be taken by British Swimming to enable the trans person to submit appropriate evidence to the Panel. This shall include British Swimming remaining open to further evidence being submitted at a later date. 5. The Panel shall have regard of the following hormone based requirements for enquiries from transsexual persons: Non-contact disciplines 5.1 Any transsexual male (female-to-male transsexual person). For non-contact sports there is a general consensus that transsexual men and boys, even after a considerable period of time on testosterone therapy, do not usually have an unfair physical advantage over other men and boys. 5.2 Transsexual woman – over 16 and post-puberty (male to female transsexual person). The information disclosed allows the Panel to ascertain that hormone therapy has been administered in a verifiable manner or ascertain the date of her gonadectomy. This information will need to demonstrate that the hormone treatment will have reduced her blood-measured testosterone level to that of the affirmed gender for an appropriate length of time and that this has minimised any potential gender-related advantage. Hormone-related treatment must be verified annually to ensure its validity. 5.3 Transsexual girl – under 16 and post-puberty. The transsexual girl and her legal guardian should be asked to permit the Panel to undertake an individual case-by-case review because there can be considerable differences in their strength and status. This will involve a review meeting with the transsexual girl, her advocate (e.g. parent) and a representative of the Panel. The review meeting will be to agree a way forward for the young person based on their individual circumstances and to manage everybody’s expectations with due consideration to fairness and safety. 5.4 Transsexual girl – pre-puberty. There should be no gender related advantage as she will largely have escaped the virilising effects of testosterone on her adolescent development. The risk of injury to competitors would be minimal and would be comparable with competitions where all competitors were birth sex female. The transsexual girl and her legal guardian should be asked to disclose sufficient 1 The Gender Recognition Panel, part of HM Courts & Tribunals Service, assesses applications from transsexual people to provide legal recognition of gender change. information to the Panel to allow it to ascertain the stage of pubertal development that the girl has reached. This is subject to annual review. Disciplines with contact or with the potential for contact 5.5 Transsexual male – over 16 (female-to-male transsexual person. The information disclosed allows the Panel to ascertain that hormone therapy has been administered in a verifiable manner. This information will need to demonstrate that the male blood- measured testosterone levels are within the range of his affirmed gender for an appropriate length of time and that this has minimised any potential gender-related advantage. Hormone-related treatment must be verified annually to ensure its validity. 5.6 Transsexual boy – under 16 and post-puberty. The transsexual boy and his legal guardian should be asked to permit the Panel to undertake an individual case-by-case review as also set out in clause 5.3. 5.7 Transsexual boy – pre-puberty. There should be no gender related advantage and the risk of injury to competitors would be minimal and comparable with competitions where all competitors are birth gender male. The transsexual boy and his legal guardian should be asked to disclose sufficient information to the Panel to allow it to ascertain the stage of pubertal development that the boy has reached. This is subject to annual review. 5.8 Transsexual woman – over 16 and post-puberty (male-to-female transsexual person). The Panel shall follow clause 5.2. 5.9 Transsexual girl – under 16 and post-puberty. The Panel shall follow clause 5.3. 5.10 Transsexual girl –pre-puberty. The Panel shall follow clause 5.4. 6. All evidence shall be properly and fairly considered by the Panel. 7. All aspects of the matter (including but not limited to communication, correspondence and evidence) shall at all times be handled sensitively by British Swimming with due respect to the requirement of confidentiality and the right to privacy. 8. A transsexual person shall not be entitled to compete in his or her acquired gender until such time as he or she has provided evidence that the applicable criteria set out above has been met to the reasonable satisfaction of the Panel. 9. Once the Panel is satisfied then verification of identity should be no more than is required of any other competitor. INITIAL ENQUIRIES All enquiries regarding participation by a trans person as a competitor should at the first instance be made to the Department of Legal Affairs. Updated April 2015 .
Recommended publications
  • STRATEGY Our Strategic Plan 2018-2024 British Swimming Is the Elite Aquatics Governing Body in the UK
    STRATEGY Our Strategic Plan 2018-2024 British Swimming is the elite aquatics governing body in the UK. We cover all the main aquatic disciplines and hold the international OUR FUTURE affiliation to both LEN and FINA. Our main focus is elite performance, international influence and staging events. Welcome to our strategic plan for The Olympics and Paralympics provide all sports with a global opportunity to 2018 – 2024. celebrate the amazing moments that inspire us all. British Swimming has the task to nurture and to support the swimmers, divers and para-swimmers responsible for those medal-winning moments. We also have a wider responsibility to work with the home nations and the whole of aquatics in the UK to ensure a healthy, growing sport. Elite success can inspire participation but only if the whole sport works together to maximise the opportunity. The purpose of this document is to provide an overarching vision for British Swimming linked to the different disciplines. Performance sport thrives best when individuals and teams have clarity of purpose. Our individual disciplines display this every day in training and competition. However, that relentless focus needs to sit within this vision and provide inspiration to the whole sport. We have a new vision within this strategy and a set of values. Vision and strategy are only effective if they drive both culture and planning. The vision and values will be incorporated into our marketing and annual planning processes. We shall also work with the home nations and stakeholders across the sport to ensure effective strategic alignment and continual collaboration.
    [Show full text]
  • SDS Annual Report 2010-2011
    LEADING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT IN SCOTLAND FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND ABILITIES WITH A PHYSICAL, SENSORY OR LEARNING DISABILITY Annual Report 2010 - 2011 www.scottishdisabilitysport.com Chairman’s Message A warm welcome to the 2011 AGM of Scottish Disability I hope you like our new website and its regular updates. Sport. More importantly I hope you use it on a regular basis as it becomes our main method of communication to all within Scottish Disability Sport would like to acknowledge with sincere thanks Once again the past year has flown in and as an disabled sport in Scotland. A big thank you to Richard who organisation we have achieved so much. I am delighted works tirelessly in the background refreshing and uploading the generous financial support received from the following Councils to with the way our staff have grown, the professionalism they all the information you pass on for the website. assist with hosting the AGM and producing this Annual Report: have shown in this past year, the additional programmes they have developed, assisting our new found athletes, the growth in training & development, the additional numbers in events, the summer camp, it’s all outstanding and there is so much more to do. I start by congratulating Gavin and our HQ staff as we undertook an Audit & Review of all our procedures through sportscotland and we were delighted to achieve ‘Reasonable Assurance’ on all our policies and procedures. The communication with our partners, in particular Governing Bodies of Sport and Local Authorities, continues to grow and our Regional Managers are producing a strong and healthy programme.
    [Show full text]
  • SELECT COMMITTEE on OLYMPIC and PARALYMPIC LEGACY Oral and Written Evidence
    SELECT COMMITTEE ON OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC LEGACY Oral and written evidence Contents Active in Time Ltd—Written evidence ................................................................................................. 3 Association for Physical Education (afPE)—Written evidence ......................................................... 8 Big Lottery Fund—Written evidence .................................................................................................. 16 BioRegional—Written evidence ........................................................................................................... 21 Boff, Andrew—Written evidence ........................................................................................................ 24 Boggis, Emma—Written evidence ........................................................................................................ 35 British Gliding Association (BGA)—Written evidence ................................................................... 49 British Standards Institution (BSI)—Written evidence .................................................................... 51 British Swimming and the Amateur Swimming Association—Written evidence ...................... 55 British Paralympic Association (BPA)—Written evidence ............................................................. 64 Community Safety Social Inclusion Scrutiny Commission—Written evidence ......................... 70 Dorset County Council—Written evidence ....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Training Regimes and Recovery Monitoring Practices of Elite British Swimmers
    ©Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2019) 18, 577-585 http://www.jssm.org ` Research article Training Regimes and Recovery Monitoring Practices of Elite British Swimmers Scott Pollock 1, Nadia Gaoua 1, Michael J. Johnston 2, Karl Cooke 3, Olivier Girard 4 and Katya N. Mileva1 1 Sport and Exercise Science Research Centre, School of Applied Sciences, London South Bank University, London, UK; 2 A-STEM, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK; 3 British Swimming, Sport Park Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK; 4 Murdoch Applied Sports Science (MASS) Laboratory, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia bringing about a high risk of overtraining (Gleeson et al., Abstract 2000). A range of methods, such as self-administered ques- Consistent prescriptions for event-specific training of swimmers tionnaires (e.g. profile of mood states), sport-specific per- are lacking, which points to likely differences in training practices formance tests (e.g. countermovement jumps) and/or blood and a potential gap between practice and scientific knowledge. and saliva screening (e.g. plasma testosterone to cortisol This study aimed to analyze the distance-specific training load of ratios) have been used as effective methods for reducing elite swimmers, derive a consistent training sessions’ description the risk of overtraining in elite athletes (Robson-Ansley et and reflect on the current recommendations for training and re- al., 2009) and are, therefore, of relevance to swimmers as covery. The individual training regimes of 18 elite British swim- well. This has particular importance for elite swimmers mers were documented by surveying four swim and two strength given the increased risk of illness/injury associated with the and conditioning (S&C) coaches.
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Disability Sport - the First Fifty Years Richard Brickley MBE Foreword
    Scottish Disability Sport - The First Fifty Years Richard Brickley MBE Foreword I was delighted to be asked by Chief Executive Gavin Macleod to record the first fifty years of Scottish Disability Sport, to mark the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Association. Initially the project was intended to be small but the more I researched, the more it brought back memories of great athletes, superb volunteers and great times. I became determined to try and do justice to as many as those great people as possible. I am certain I shall have forgotten key people in the eyes of others and if so I apologise profusely. For almost four decades SDS has been for me a way of life. The volunteers I have had the pleasure of working with for almost three decades are those I remember with great fondness, particularly during the early years. I applaud the many athletes who contributed to the rich history and success of SDS over fifty years. Outstanding volunteers like Bob Mitchell, Mary Urquhart, David Thomson, Jean Stone, Chris Cohen and Colin Rains helped to develop and sustain my passion for disability sport. I have been privileged to work with exceptional professionals like Ken Hutchison, Derek Casey, Liz Dendy, Paul Bush, Bob Price, Louise Martin, Sheila Dobie, Fiona Reid, Eddie McConnell, Gavin MacLeod, Mary Alison, Heather Lowden, Lawrie Randak, Tracey McCillen, Archie Cameron and many others whose commitment to inclusive sport has been obvious and long lasting. I thank Jean Stone, Jacqueline Lynn, Heather Lowden, Maureen Brickley and Paul Noble who acted as “readers” during the writing of the history and Norma Buchanan for administrative support at important stages.
    [Show full text]
  • Minutes Subject to Approval at the Next British Swimming Board Meeting BRITISH SWIMMING BOARD Minutes of the Meeting Held on the 5Th & 6Th February 2021 Via Zoom
    Minutes subject to approval at the next British Swimming Board Meeting BRITISH SWIMMING BOARD Minutes of the meeting held on the 5th & 6th February 2021 via Zoom Present: Maurice Watkins (MW) Chair Jack Buckner(JB) CEO Alex Kelham (AK) Swim England Keith Ashton (KA) Swim England Jane Nickerson (JN) Swim England Graeme Marchbank (GM) Scottish Swimming Fergus Feeney (FF) Swim Wales Adele Stach-Kevitz (AS) Independent Member (Friday only) David Carry (DC) Independent Member Corinne Cunningham (CC) Independent Member Graham Edmunds (GE) Athlete Representative Ash Cox (AC) Director of Legal & Governance (DOLAG) Kathreen France (KF) Head of Finance (HOF) Wendy Lockton (WL) Director of Business Operations (DOBO) Chris Furber (CF) Performance Director Para Swimming (Friday only) Alexei Evangulov (AE) Performance Director Diving (Friday only) Chris Spice (CS) Performance Director Swimming (Friday only) Colin Allen (CA) Education Programme Manager for UKAD (Friday only) Wendy Henderson (WH) National Trainer for UKAD (Friday only) Maria White (MW) Anti-Doping Compliance & Relationships (Friday only) Byron Vaughan (BV) Executive Officer (EO) Apologies: Peter Littlewood (PL) Senior Independent Member Adele Stach-Kevitz (AS) Independent Member (Saturday Only) 16. Welcome and Apologies 16.1. The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting which included Colin Allen (CA) and Wendy Henderson (WH) from UK Anti-Doping who were in attendance to present to the Board. All attendees attended via Zoom due to the ongoing Covid-19 impact. Apologies were noted for
    [Show full text]
  • The 2018 - 2019 the HALLIFORDIAN
    HallifordianThe 2018 - 2019 The HALLIFORDIAN 2 Introduction Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................... page 3 Autumn Highlights ............................................................................................. page 13 Spring Highlights ............................................................................................... page 50 Summer Highlights............................................................................................. page 85 Art Exhibition ..................................................................................................... page 116 House Reports .................................................................................................. page 128 Old Hallifordians............................................................................................... page 136 3 The HALLIFORDIAN scheme at the school with new facilities for our Sixth Form students, a new Science Laboratory, two new Foreword IT Studios, major investment in the IT infrastructure of the school and significant investment in the by The Headmaster Design Technology workshop. These new facilities This has been quite a year for us all and as we look have been incredibly well received by our students back over the last twelve months, I feel so incredibly and I am delighted that this coming summer a proud to be Headmaster of such a wonderful School. further development plan has been approved by the At Speech Day, I reflected on
    [Show full text]
  • Stakeholder Consultation
    Final Report Stakeholder consultation January 2015 CONTENTS Contents ..................................................................................................................... 2 About UK Sport ............................................................................................................ 9 Core responsibilities ................................................................................................ 9 Overview ................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 11 The purpose of consultation ................................................................................... 11 This report ............................................................................................................. 11 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 12 Defining the stakeholder universe .......................................................................... 13 Executive summary .................................................................................................... 14 Participant profile ...................................................................................................... 17 Stakeholder workshops .......................................................................................... 17 Written submissions ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • June 2019 Sport Park, Loughborough
    Minutes subject to approval at the next British Swimming Board Meeting BRITISH SWIMMING BOARD Minutes of the meeting held on 7th & 8th June 2019 Sport Park, Loughborough Present: Maurice Watkins Chair Jack Buckner CEO Alex Kelham Swim England Keith Ashton Swim England Jane Nickerson Swim England Graeme Marchbank Scottish Swimming Fergus Feeney Swim Wales Adele Stach-Kevitz Independent Member Urvashi Dattani Independent Member Peter Littlewood Independent Member David Carry Independent Member Graham Edmunds Athlete Representative Ash Cox Director of Legal & Governance (DOLG) Kathreen France Head of Finance (HOF) Wendy Lockton Director of Business Operations (DOBO) Maria White Admin Support 53 Welcome and Introductions 53.1 The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. 54 Events, Facilities & Commercial Update, Jack Buckner 54.1 Jack Buckner presented an update to the Board. The main headings of the presentation were: 2019 Events 2020 Events Recommendations on events 54.2 The CEO confirmed that following his report to the Board at their previous meeting in Wales, he had updated the presentation to include the latest information with regards to the Diving World Series (DWS) and International Swimming League (ISL). 54.3 The CEO confirmed that the Swimming and Diving PD’s will present to the Board at their September Board Meeting on results from 2019 and looking ahead to Tokyo 2020. The Para Swimming PD will present to the Board at the November Board meeting following their World Championships in September. 54.4 The CEO advised that based on performances to date athletes were doing well and morale was high and optimistic. 54.4.1 The CEO was questioned about how the events team were feeling with the additional events they were having to deliver and also the structural change following the departure of the Director of Events and Communication.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Review and Performance Report 2015-16
    ANNUAL REVIEW AND PERFORMANCE REPORT 2015-16 Inspiring Glasgow’s citizens & visitors to lead richer & more active lives through culture, sport and learning. More than 18 million attendances at venues, events and festivals delivered by Glasgow Life – up more than a third since 2007 A record-breaking year for Glasgow’s nine award-winning civic museums with almost 3.9 million attendances, with more than one million visits recorded at both Kelvingrove and Riverside Museums Free Wi-Fi rolled out across our libraries, community facilities, public halls and major cultural and sporting facilities Some 2,600 staff delivered outstanding public services across 160 Glasgow Life venues in every corner of the city There were 6.2 million attendances across our network of sports facilities 2015 World Cup Gymnastics at the SSE Hydro hailed ‘better than the Olympics’, as the city hosts a year of massively successful sporting events including the IPC Swimming World Championships at Tollcross and 2015 Davis Cup ties at the Emirates Arena More than 150,000 visitors to the Merchant City Festival and tens of thousands enjoyed other cultural events including the ever popular World Pipe Band Championships, Glasgow Mela and Aye Write! A record-breaking 1.4 million attendances at Community Facilities and over 5.2 million attendances at Glasgow’s 32 Community Libraries and the Mitchell Library More than 3,000 people took part in a major consultation to future-proof our libraries - the ‘Vision for Glasgow Libraries’ action plan will safeguard these treasured community
    [Show full text]
  • SDS Annual Report 2009-2010
    LEADING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT IN SCOTLAND FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND ABILITIES WITH A PHYSICAL, SENSORY OR LEARNING DISABILITY Annual Report 2009 - 2010 www.scottishdisabilitysport.com Scottish Disability Sport would like to acknowledge with sincere thanks the generous financial support received from the following Councils to assist with hosting the AGM and producing this Annual Report: Chairman’s Message Welcome to the 2010 AGM of Scottish Disability Sport. We continue to receive strong support and guidance from It just seems like yesterday when I last wrote to you sportscotland and the Institute of Sport and our thanks in about the forthcoming year and the exciting prospects particular go to Calum Wood and Liz Mendl. of regionalisation, restructuring and of being on the right Many thanks to our sponsors, in particular Capability pathway and here we are another year on. Scotland, The Scottish Disabled Sports Trust, The Sportsman’s Charity and Nationwide as without your It’s been a good year for SDS and we have achieved so financial commitment we would have difficulties in much with your support especially at Branch and Regional maintaining our programmes. Our partnerships with levels and of course our ever growing Governing Bodies of Sport have never staff group. It’s also been a year of been stronger and we are developing changing responsibilities, as Board further opportunities for joint members became staff and we working. completed a review and restructure of the core staffing. On the sporting front, I am delighted with the many achievements over The Board have worked tirelessly the past year as highlighted in our throughout their term and I would like annual report.
    [Show full text]
  • The Annual Report and Accounts 2019 2 British Swimming Annual Report and Accounts 2019 British Swimming Annual Report | Company Information 3
    The Annual Report and accounts 2019 2 British Swimming Annual Report and Accounts 2019 British Swimming Annual Report | Company Information 3 Company Contents Information For the year ended 31 March 2018 03 company Information CHAIRMAN REGISTERED OFFICE 04 Chairman’s Report Edward Maurice Watkins CBE British Swimming Pavilion 3 05 CEO’S report DIRECTORS Sportpark 06 Monthly Highlights 3 Oakwood Drive Keith David Ashton Loughborough 08 World Championships Jack Richard Buckner LE11 3QF 10 World Para Swimming Championships David Robert Carry Bankers 11 Excellence - Swimming Urvashi Dilip Dattani Lloyds Bank 15 Excellence - Diving Graham Ian Edmunds 37/38 High Street 19 Excellence - para-Swimming Loughborough Jane Nickerson Leicestershire 22 NON Funded sports update Fergus Gerard Feeney LE11 2QG 23 Corporate UPDATE Alexandra Joanna Kelham Coutts & Co. 24 International relations 440 Strand Peter Jeremy Littlewood London 26 governance Statement Graeme Robertson Marchbank WC2R 0QS 28 Major events Adele Stach-Kevitz AUDITOR 30 Marketing and communications COMPANY SECRETARY Mazars LLP 31 finances ParkView House 38 Acknowledgements Ashley Cox 58 The Ropewalk Nottingham COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER NG15DW 4092510 Front Cover Images: FINA Champions Swim Series 2019 – Imogen Clark. FINA World Championships 2019 – Thomas Daley. World Para-swimming Allianz Championships 2019 – Tully Kearney. 4 British Swimming Annual Report and Accounts 2019 British Swimming Annual Report | CEO's Report 5 Chairman’s CEO's Report Report edward MAURICE WATKINS CBE Jack Richard Buckner This was yet another noteworthy year for British Swimming with was clarified since when British Athletes have been involved in There was a time when the year before the Olympic and We are now moving forward with a focus on the Tokyo Olympics the 18th FINA World Aquatic Championships in Gwangju South both the inaugural FINA Champions Series and will be available Paralympic games was a slightly quieter year in the hectic world and Paralympics.
    [Show full text]